ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Nearly every morning during his most recent
camp, Leonard
Garcia began his day by reading passages from the Bible aloud
in his room at the ranch he shares with
UFC lightweight contender Donald
Cerrone.

In doing so, the popular brawler known as “Bad Boy” attracted
something of a following in his Edgewood, N.M., residence. At any
given time, Garcia and Cerrone provide lodging and training
opportunities for multiple mixed martial artists, most of whom
harbor dreams of reaching heights similar to those achieved by
their celebrated hosts. Recently, many of those same fighters have
found themselves drifting into Garcia’s room to listen as he
reads.

While it was never his intention to draw an audience, the presence
of his training partners is most certainly welcome, Garcia
says.

“What’s crazy is I never invited anybody,” said Garcia, who faces
Max
Holloway at
UFC 155 on Saturday. “They just kind of heard me reading. I
read out loud because I feel like I shouldn’t be ashamed of it. I
think reading the Bible out loud is a great thing. [Now] they come
in and tell me, ‘Hey, are you gonna read?’ And I say, ‘Yeah, I was
just waiting on you guys.’”

Not everyone at the ranch is following the same path. According to
Garcia, Cerrone has taken it upon himself to find a scripture that
can easily be identified with his friend, like the “Austin 3:16”
handle that become famous during professional wrestler “Stone Cold”
Steve Austin’s rise to prominence in the WWE. At least that means
Cerrone is reading, Garcia points out.

“Cowboy makes fun of me a little bit. He says he’s gonna bring
Bibles to the gym and beat me up with them so I can have crosses
all over me – so I can go praise God,” Garcia said, chuckling at
the memory.

Garcia discovered his faith during a recent trip to his hometown of
Plainview, Texas, where he served as a guest speaker at a local
youth ministry. The appearance had a profound effect on the UFC
featherweight talent.

“I got up there and talked, and I noticed that everyone was holding
on to my [every] word,” he said. “All these kids were paying
attention to me – they wanted to know what was going on in my life.
I had a great feeling come over me, and I wanted to keep it. I knew
that feeling wasn’t something that can be given by anything normal.
I knew it had to be God. It took off from there, and it hasn’t left
yet.”

A newfound devotion to religion is just part of the shift in
philosophy adopted by Garcia. After three consecutive losses in the
UFC, the Jackson’s MMA product realized that, despite his
reputation for entertaining slugfests in the cage, his position in
the Las Vegas-based promotion had grown tenuous. This revelation
did not come easily for the 33-year-old Texan, as he admits to
coasting on his reputation since a wild, split-decision triumph
over Chan Sung
Jung at WEC 48, a bout that was one of the most entertaining
fights of 2010 – and one that some believe Garcia didn’t deserve to
win.

“I remember after that fight just believing: I can go into a fight
on this many week’s notice, train kind of hard and still win. It
turned out to be a curse for me. After that (Jung) fight is when it
really turned on, and after my last one is when it turned off,”
Garcia said.

Garcia’s last appearance reminded no one of the
Fight-of-the-Night-worthy performances for which he has become
known. Taken down at will by wrestler Matt Grice,
“Bad Boy” landed just two significant strikes en route to a
one-sided unanimous decision loss at UFC on FX 3.

“I had a fractured ankle in that fight. The last Thursday of
sparring I went with Clay Guida, I
kicked him right in the knee and my foot blew up the size of a
basketball,” he said. “I iced it all weekend – couldn’t run,
couldn’t do anything. I took the fight for financial reasons. I had
no choice. I had to take the fight or lose my home. Everybody knows
when you make choices in life, you pay for them. I made the wrong
decision.”

Despite being hindered by an injury in that loss, Garcia didn’t lie
to himself. He still realized he needed to renew his focus in the
gym. Four-day workout weeks had become the norm, and the fighter
was finally beginning to notice the negative effects of his relaxed
approach.

“It took all this to humble me and to make me realize that I wasn’t
the superstar I thought I was,” Garcia said. “You don’t want to
think about stuff like that when you’re training. I ‘m here with
the best guys in the world. I’m in here hanging with them every
day. I wasn’t pushing them anymore. I was just satisfied with
hanging in.

“Guys started passing me up. Guys started getting better. I
realized that something was going wrong,” he continued.”I had to
come back in and do the classes like everybody else. I had to put
my time in on the mat. Now it’s getting back to normal. The main
guys are talking about me like I’m a main guy again. They’re asking
me to be part of their rounds again. Whereas it used to be, I’d
volunteer and they’d be like, ‘That’s all right.’”

When Garcia squares of with the 21-year-old Holloway, he knows his
back is against the wall. While the WEC veteran is officially 3-6-1
in his last 10 fights under the Zuffa umbrella, the presence of
three split-decision wins and a split draw on his ledger suggest
that Garcia could just as easily be 0-10.

The road doesn’t get any easier with Holloway, a promising talent
who has been impressive in dispatching Pat
Schilling and Justin
Lawrence in his last two Octagon appearances. That said, Garcia
relishes his current position.